13370. THE ETHICS OF INVOLUNTARY PSYCHIATRIC COMMITMENT. Considers the controversial biomedical ethics issues related to involuntary commitment of the mentally ill, weighing the patients’ rights and patient autonomy arguments against and the utilitarian and parens patriae arguments in favor of involuntary commitment. Examines the extent to which the “purity” of these opposing moral arguments have been confounded and diluted by the politics of deinstitutionalization, the problem of homelessness and the public’s fear of the mentally ill. KEYWORDS: psychiatry ethics mentally ill confinement involuntary psychiatric commitment. APA Style. 10 pages, 17 footnotes, 7 bibliographic sources.